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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Dhakoba Trek

Dec'2013, we visited infamous trekking destination call Dhakoba. Name is bit weird but its named to honor the god who use to reside on that mountain peak. History says, eventually, statue of God Dhakoba was needed to move below the mountain peak due to daily to-fro journey for priest was difficult to worship the statue. Now, the Dhakoba temple is below the peak and any local who goes on peak has to remove their footwares before climbing the peak. It's said to be very much local rule and is still being followed by local peoples. Informarion given by local person Mr Damu Supe.

We were 5 guys: Mahendra, Duster-Parsi, SK, Aamly, Bharat-bhushan (Names here are used encrypted to avoid implications with real life people but still they know they are well mentioned here)

Well, coming back to how to plan, how to find the way and other details follows next :

We started rather we planned to start from Pune at 5am morning (well there was delay in start time due to SK :P ) . We started on Nashik road by 5.30am. Quick morning run to Narayangaov till 7 am around. We took nice breakfast (Kanda-Pohe), masala tea at stall outside bus stand on highway. Make sure you have healthy & light breakfast. Do NOT eat too much else you might need an extra stop before or while climbing those steep mountain peaks. Well, one of us - Bharat-bhushan needed an emergency stop for late morning nature's call. Sometimes tea/cigar or good nature could make the call if you didn't had it properly at home :P .

Following are the essentials to be carried for trip:-

1.Water Bottles – 3 Litres per person compulsory.

2.Towels + Shorts + Shoes + Sunglasses – Personal choice.

3.Camera - Must have

4.Cap – Must Have

5.Pay 500 Rs per person to SK, upfront. All the expenses would be done from this fund. (Well, 70Rs was left over after dinner/tea/breakfast)

6.Glucose – If required.

Here map route from Pune http://goo.gl/maps/pTur6
We
reached the base around 9am. Road from Junnar to Amboli 20 km patch is
bad. It's under construction and will be ready in few days.

Park the vehicle near last mile-stone to village Amboli. If you notice there are two milestone at distance to 10meter. One indicating 21 km to reach Junnar while other have mark of 20km to Junnar. They got covered 1km in just 10 meter distance ;)

Walk straight as the rough footpath towards two mountains you see on left side. Note that, you won't see Dhakoba until you reach to almost 1/3 of the total trek. It's almost after 1 hour, you can see Dhakoba peak.

You have to follow footpaths on the way and guess your path. Safer way is to reach Dhakoba temple and them go to the peak.

We had small incidence with cattle group. One of us got the shouting sneeze! This disturbed the cattles. All of sudden, all of them charged on us. We were around 100meter away from them so it didn't create major problem. We kept out ground strong. It's important to NOT move around and run away. Bulls and cows kept staring at us from far. Place was rocky so cattle didn't dared to chase us down on rocky area. We took small way around to reach towards path. Eventually, Mr Damu Supe (We called him Supe mama or Supe uncle) saw us and recognized SK as he had visited the place twice before coming with us. Mama helped to make cattles go away. He also showed the path to Dhakoba peak and also joined us to come on the top.

You will see this lonely tree with its beautiful reflection is fighting for its place in pond :

Here are some pics we took at Dhakoba peak:

Beautiful view to mountains on center and right. You might see Harishchandragad if you are lucky to guess it properly and have clear weather.

Water reservoirs on way down. This way is to climb the Dhakoba from Konkan side. Village Puli seen as base.